THE TOTALISATOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 3035, 15 May 1912, Page 52

THE TOTALISATOR.

SYDNEY, May 7. Before the Totalisator Commission today Mr Burton, a well-known trainer, said that betting was a fool's game. Horse-racing was purely a business, and the name " The Sport of Kings " had disappeared. He agreed that racing could not exist without betting. May 9. Before the Totalisator Commission, the manager for Mr Oxenham, a well-known bookmaker, estimated that the turnover of bookmakers in New South Wales is nearly £10,000,000 annually. He recommended a State-controlled totalisator, and the abolition of bookmakers. In reply to evidence that the totalisator made men liars, the chairman read a telegram from a well-known Adelaide sportsman, stating that it was impossible for the totalisator to make men greater liars than they were at present. May 13. The Totalisator Commission examined the Rev. Wools Rutledge, Methodist minister, to-day. He said he did not think the totalisator would improve the breed of horses. Even if it did, it would not breed a better class of men, and it would make the State a participator in the vice of gambling. There was also a danger that it would increase gambling, because it would give an air of respectability, which it did not possess to-day. He knew a Sunday school where Tattersall's sweeps were subscribed for. Messrs John Whitworth and Thomas Cotter, New Zealanders, favoured the bookmakers the latter because under the totalisator the punter bet in the dark. The totalisator also bred betting in shops at totalisator odds.